I'm sorely tempted to start a separate thread to put an end to the myth (yes,
myth) that leveled characters in AD&D are this "rare commodity".
They're not. Sepulchrave subscribes to the "1% fallacy". The "1% fallacy" is that in AD&D, only 1% of the population had levels, while the rest of the NPCs are zero-level nobodies.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
He mentions this:
Sepulchrave II said:
In any event, the numbers were burned into my mind. For a long time, when I was playing AD&D, I used them when I was designing settlements in order to determine the incidence of PC-class characters: I know some still use this system (S'mon, amongst others), or variations thereof. Here are the magic numbers:
* 1% of characters are PC-class; the remaining 99% are 0-level
* For every PC-class character of level N, there are half as many PC-class characters of level (N+1)
Bear in mind that this was 1E, and we don't have 0-level characters anymore. But the assumed incidence of PC-class characters is more-or-less 1E canon (if such ever existed). On p.35 of the 1E Dungeon Masters Guide it states:
From the 1e DMG said:
Human and half-orc characters suitable for level advancement are found at a ratio of 1 in 100.
Unfortunately, the OP takes this quote completely out of context. That magic number of 1%? It refers to the level advancement of
henchmen. Now before anyone says, "so what?"....please allow me to point out a couple things. For starters, in AD&D,
you can already have class levels, and be unsuitable for level advancement. For an example, check out the 1e DMG on page 30. That section is devoted to "expert hirelings", and one of those hirelings is labeled as a "Captain", which is simply a capable leader who happens to be a fighter of 5th to 8th-level. Again, you might say..."so"? And I'd say, "
captains are incapable of working upwards in level". In other words, they have levels, but they don't advance.
Oddly, that's not even my main point. If you
really want an idea of the level of NPCs you might encounter in 1e, then just skim through the
City/Town Encounters Matrix in the 1e DMG, on page 190. It's a perfect example of what to expect if you travel through any town or city. If you read it, you'll see that over half the encounters have NPCs that could easily mulch a 1st-level Fighter. But don't take my word for it.
Read it.